First arrest made in WikiLeaks revenge attacks

A 16-year-old Dutch boy has been arrested for being involved in 4chan's DDoS …

4chan vigilante group Anonymous is used to getting away with its DDoS attacks and other Internet shenanigans, but that's not going to be the case this time around. An arrest has been made in 4chan's revenge attacks on PayPal, Visa, and MasterCard, begun after the companies stopped providing services to WikiLeaks. The first to go down is a Dutch 16-year-old boy, who has been arrested by the Dutch High Tech Crime Team and is being held for interrogation.

The teenager went unnamed by the National Prosecutor, but the team said in an announcement Thursday that the cyberattacks (some of which came out of the Netherlands) "quickly led" investigators to the suspect. In addition to his arrest, the 4channer's computers and other devices were seized.

In addition to the high-profile attacks on the payment processors, Anonymous also made an attempt to take down Amazon after the company kicked WikiLeaks off its servers. That attempt appears to have failed (as did the initial attacks on PayPal), but the group could decide to renew its efforts at any time.

As for the arrested teenager, he has already confessed to being part of the attacks on Visa and MasterCard, according to Dutch authorities. The investigation is ongoing, though, because a larger group is "probably" involved. We're going to go out on a limb and say that a single arrest won't put a stop to the actions of that larger group.

How able anyone is to stop the attacks will depend on how many people are actually controlling / directing the machines in the DDoS. They'll *never* be able to stop every machine involved with the attack, so it all depends on who is actually in control. I'd imagine that number is still pretty large.

this whole fiasco has made my time at work pass by quickly with all the reading i get to do

Ditto!

Kudos to the kid, although I'm sure he was an insignificant and rather small piece of the overall pie. I'm sure the NSA/CIA will be scooping him up soon and giving him a job. Doing things like this is nothing more than providing a resume to them.

How able anyone is to stop the attacks will depend on how many people are actually controlling / directing the machines in the DDoS. They'll *never* be able to stop every machine involved with the attack, so it all depends on who is actually in control. I'd imagine that number is still pretty large.

It's my understanding that the Anonymous attacks are mostly staged from volunteer machines running their client, not the traditional botnets used for DoS attacks. That means they would have to arrest a lot of people to put a stop to it. I'm also sure that the more cautious of the attackers aren't stupid enough to use machines in their house that can be tracked.

this whole fiasco has made my time at work pass by quickly with all the reading i get to do

Ditto!

Kudos to the kid, although I'm sure he was an insignificant and rather small piece of the overall pie. I'm sure the NSA/CIA will be scooping him up soon and giving him a job. Doing things like this is nothing more than providing a resume to them.

Not so much.

If he had cracked Amazon's servers and reopened the Wikileaks account, that'd be one thing. Running a script like a thousand other script kiddies is quite another--the NSA won't have any use for something so automatedly simple as that.

(Now, if he'd -written- the tool, and it turned out there was some sophistication behind it, that'd be another matter altogether).

Downloading software and being a part of a DDOS attack is neather something that should ever be celebrated, nor an accomplishment. Why don't throw a parade and give a Turning Award for all the people who install trojans and viruses that cause their PC to operate part of a botnet while we are at it...

Even if you support Wikileaks, using DDOS attacks is not a legtimate form of protest, is a crime and the attacks have only interefered with normal people trying to buy things or pay bills.

Kudos to the kid, although I'm sure he was an insignificant and rather small piece of the overall pie. :) I'm sure the NSA/CIA will be scooping him up soon and giving him a job. Doing things like this is nothing more than providing a resume to them.

Yeah, I'm sure the NSA would jump at the chance to hire someone with the vast technical knowledge and broad experience demonstrated by running a script they got off a discussion forum.

You're crediting the NSA with some level of intelligence here. I'm willing to bet that behind closed doors these organisations are run just as badly as any company you've ever worked at.

To be realistic, IF the NSA was behind the DDoS attacks, they will never be caught. It's very easy to hide your identity in this sort of attack (which is why you only ever hear about teenage kids being arrested for it) and even if they didn't no one would dare bring them in for it.

"Well done kid"? Are fing kidding me? I feel for his parents and he should be treated as a kid (if found guilty of a crime) but screw these 4chan (etc) attacks and the people doing them. If he were 18 I wouldn't feel sorry for him if he got 5 years in prison. You guys don't like the NSA doing it (which I agree with and we should sue/demand arrests) but this crap is just stupid and you should be calling prosecution of anyone caught doing these attacks.

Was the "original" DDoS against Wikileaks even an organized one? Or was it simply that when they announced they had documents, everyone and their dog tried to log into the site and it died from the pressure? You know, Slashdot effect and all.

Also, people who think that this kid is smart obviously have no clue. As stated above, all he probably did was download a script and run it. I bet he'll be a great help though, a 16-year old would be too scared to hold out information. From there they'll just trace who posted in the discussion forums where they organized their activities.

this whole fiasco has made my time at work pass by quickly with all the reading i get to do

Ditto!

Kudos to the kid, although I'm sure he was an insignificant and rather small piece of the overall pie. I'm sure the NSA/CIA will be scooping him up soon and giving him a job. Doing things like this is nothing more than providing a resume to them.

Not so much.

If he had cracked Amazon's servers and reopened the Wikileaks account, that'd be one thing. Running a script like a thousand other script kiddies is quite another--the NSA won't have any use for something so automatedly simple as that.

(Now, if he'd -written- the tool, and it turned out there was some sophistication behind it, that'd be another matter altogether).

This. He and thousands of other "hackers" just participate in those DDOS attacks because it's the cool thing to do on teh intarwebz. They possess no more technical skill than someone who installs a fake a/v or a botnet client. The only difference is that the script kiddies know they are doing it.

Even if you support Wikileaks, using DDOS attacks is not a legtimate form of protest, is a crime and the attacks have only interefered with normal people trying to buy things or pay bills.

My feelings exactly. They're trying to piggy-back on the Wikileaks "fiasco" now that they're bored with the MPAA/RIAA. More than likely the majority of people involved don't really care about making a statement and are just doing it to make themselves feel important.

Downloading software and being a part of a DDOS attack is neather something that should ever be celebrated, nor an accomplishment. Why don't throw a parade and give a Turning Award for all the people who install trojans and viruses that cause their PC to operate part of a botnet while we are at it...

Even if you support Wikileaks, using DDOS attacks is not a legtimate form of protest, is a crime and the attacks have only interefered with normal people trying to buy things or pay bills.

You're right

But I'll have much more sympathy for your position once governments start prosecuting the people who launched the DDOS attack against Wikileaks itself

The kid went unnamed? Bull. If all this came up because people want access to information they have no business having then I want the kid's name address and contact information so that the entire world can have it.

Even if you support Wikileaks, using DDOS attacks is not a legtimate form of protest, is a crime and the attacks have only interefered with normal people trying to buy things or pay bills.

My feelings exactly. They're trying to piggy-back on the Wikileaks "fiasco" now that they're bored with the MPAA/RIAA. More than likely the majority of people involved don't really care about making a statement and are just doing it to make themselves feel important.

I'm glad the kid got caught. Any time a small group of people decides on their own what the rest of the world will be able to read/hear/access, it pisses me off.

Se where are your calls for arresting politicians pushing for wikileaks to get closed down? Or does it not count when corrupt politicians are doing it?

Brainless politicians pandering to their base aren't doing anything illegal. I thought you were all about freedom of expression?

Besides, who cares about the attacks on WikiLeaks? We have a million mirrors plus torrents. On the other hand, shutting down service sites hurts millions of ordinary people. It's sad how you WikiLeak-fags completely ignore who's really getting hurt in all this.